The Mine Bleue, a unique place in Europe, 126m underground!
The Mine Bleue, the “blue mine” is an old slate mine in which several hundred miners worked at the beginning of the 20th century, from 1916 to 1936.
A team of experienced and passionate guides will equip you with helmets and the adventure can begin! You take the cable car to go down to a depth of 126m: we save you the stairs and leave it to the miners from back then. When we reach the bottom, our eyes first have to get used to the dim lighting. Then it starts: exploring this strange and unique place that is so full of history. The guides know their craft and share their knowledge in an interesting, engaging and entertaining way.
Once you're down in the mine, you almost forget how much time passes... Huge mining chambers open up before your eyes. Down here, so deep underground, no sign of the time that passes outside or the weather that prevails outside reaches us... use this visit to feel far away and enjoy the peace and quiet inside the earth.
You feel like a real adventurer with the helmet and the lamp on your head, a warm jacket for the constant temperature of 13°C and the tour for Indiana Jones and the Blue Anjou team begins! It is not difficult to imagine what life was like for the men here who carried out their work every day at the risk of their lives. Because, even though the entire mine is now completely secured, firedamp explosions (explosions caused by mine gas) and tunnel collapses continue to claim their victims down here.
The further processing of the slate
Now you have seen where the slate comes from. But what will become of him after that? Back in the fresh air, the guides show them how the stone cutting of the slate works. They demonstrate the different stages: dividing, extracting, splitting, rounding... After visiting this mine, you will definitely look at the slate roofs of Anjou with different eyes!
The Mine Bleu is also open on Easter and All Saints Day. If it rains, the tour will be adjusted accordingly
After a first visit to scout out the shop that made us want to come back, here we are back 2 months later on a little bike trip. We have valuable luggage and bikes. So we go in with our bikes in hand to see if it would be possible to put them away. The time it took us to approach the shop, a guy arrives in a van and without saying hello or any other formalities, tells us that our bikes have no place there. Very well sir, if bikes are not welcome, neither are we, goodbye to Mine Bleue 😤